There is nothing like attending a funeral to put your life back into prospective. This weekend I attended the funeral of my Uncle Ron Carter. This is my uncle on my father's side. Ron Carter was the father of 8 children. Five boys and 3 girls. As each of the children got up to speak, each of them mentioned how important the family was to their father. Each of them had their own favorite saying, favorite event that was emblazoned in their minds that engulfed the feeling of what their Dad meant to them. As they told these stories, talked about mannerisms, and discussed childhood nicknames, I couldn't help but think about my own roll as a father in my family. What stories would be told about me? How would I be viewed by my kids? What memories would they have of me? I am almost positive that the memories that I have and the lessons that I want them to remember will not be the ones told at my funeral. As we listened (I say we because Coby and Savanna were with me) I could see Savanna writing on a small piece of paper. As I peaked over my shoulder to see what she was doing, I discovered that she was writing down all of the nick names that I used for my kids. This brought a smile to my face and gave me the assurance that maybe I was on the right track.
I have always looked up to the cousins that I have in the Uncle Ron family. I still remember when I was little and the BIG Carter Cousins came over to our house to have lunch. I remember they were all really tall and really good at basketball. I wanted to be just like them. One very vivid memory was when we had a bowl of chips and one of the Carter boys picked up the chip and put the whole chip in their mouth. WOW, that was awesome. I couldn't do that. Latter on in life when I got a little older, I used the ONE BITE technique of eating a chip and that is when I realized, it wasn't that hard. :-) I don't know where I was going with that last comment, I just put it out there.
After the funeral service I had a sad feeling. Not that I was devastated for the passing of my uncle Ron, but that I wished I had gotten to know there family better, because they were all very "GOOD" people. I could tell that all of the children of Ron and Laree Carter were, in the words of my Dad, "The salt of the earth".
One final thought, what does, "Shoot Luke, the sky's full of pigeons." mean and where did it come from?
